By Pete Borello

Los Altos High athletic director Monica Lodge is eagerly anticipating the start of the prep soccer season, even if it is still three months away.

“I’m looking forward to that season,” she said. “I think we lucked out.”

This good fortune has to do with the recent hiring of Robert Magellan as varsity girls soccer coach.

“He’s really what the team needs,” Lodge said. “I think the team is going to fly this year.”

The Eagles failed to get off the ground last year, finishing at the bottom of the competitive SCVAL De Anza Division.

That doesn’t scare Magellan, though.

“I like challenges,” he said.

Magellan has yet to meet his new team - preseason training doesn’t start until early November - but he does know a few of the players from coaching club soccer and futsal (a sport similar to indoor soccer). The 39-year-old has been a club coach for several years and currently guides the De Anza Deja Vu, an under-14 girls Class I soccer team.

This is Magellan’s first stint as a high school coach, unless you count the three weeks he ran the Los Altos boys team in 1999 when Eagles coach and fellow Brazilian Vava Marques had to go out of town. It was then that Magellan first impressed Lodge, who recalled, “He did great.”

Magellan said he was less than great during a summer interview for the girls coaching position, however.

“I didn’t do so well,” he said. “I had to talk about myself to people who knew me from before.”

Obviously, the interview went better than Magellan thought and his resume apparently wowed the hiring committee.

“His soccer background is fantastic,” Lodge said. “His background and personality should work well with the team. He’s a very positive, strong soccer coach.”

Magellan, who came to the United States in 1982, played four years of soccer at the University of San Francisco. He double-majored at USF, earning degrees in physical education and psychological services. He later spent a season as an assistant coach at Foothill College.

Magellan, who is married with two children, recently took the state’s teaching-credential exam and hopes to become a teacher at Los Altos. He previously taught in Brazil, where he also worked as a tour guide.

The Sunnyvale resident said he’s excited about his new job and, like Lodge, can’t wait for the season.

“It’s a great opportunity to teach teamwork and help the players build their character,” he said.